Seoul officials see the talks as the starting point of President Moon Jae-in's initiative to denuclearize and build lasting peace on the peninsula, beginning with a freeze in the North's nuclear program and ending in its complete abolishment.

Angela Ruggiero, a four-times ice hockey world champion and Olympic gold medalist, told Reuters she would ask others to nominate the team, which included 12 players from North Korea which is still technically at war with the South.

Any meeting would represent a diplomatic coup for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who swept to power last year on a policy of engaging more with the reclusive North and has pushed for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

"I'm announcing today the United States of America will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever," Vice President Mike Pence said after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent UN monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

Ji Seong-ho, 35, a North Korean defector who appeared at President Trump's State of the Union address this week, is from Hoeryong, near the border with China. He told Reuters last year about the wooden crutches that he left North Korea with in 2006.

In his first State of the Union address, Trump announced a new executive order keeping Guantanamo Bay prison open, called for infrastructure investments and laid out four planks for immigration reform.

They also agreed to form a unified women's ice hockey team and the South said it will send its skiers to the Masikryong ski resort in the North for joint training with North Korean skiers ahead of the Games.

Officials from the DPRK – North Korea’s official name — and South Korea are talking again. So, what exactly is North Korea after? If you listen to its own propaganda, the North's leader Kim Jong-un intends to win the Korean War.